WESTWORLD has stopped production! If you recall when we were all anticipating Season One of Nolan/Joy’s version of WESTWORLD it came to a screeching halt. The showrunners and their writers, Gina Atwater, Jason Lanier Brown, Ed Brubaker, Michael Crichton, Dan Dietz, Kath Lingenfelter, Dominic Mitchell, Daniel T. Thomsen, Halley Wegryn Gross and Charles Yu paused production in order to shore up the plotline of the back half of that premiere season. We feared it meant a weak series was struggling to make sense prompting rewrites But upon the season’s conclusion we appreciated the halt because it led to a powerful, complex and awesome 10-episode rush of cinematic fun.
Well, now we discover that Season Two has halted production in front of the camera due to the recent raging wildfires in California that are being fueled by the Santa Ana winds. A state of emergency has been issued as a total of 475 acres of woodland and structures have been set ablaze. The fires have threatened many including some of the exterior sets of WESTWORLD.
The set that is the town of Sweetwater in the series is one such threatened area. The location is the Melody Ranch near Santa Clarita. The production company issued a statement: “Due to nearby wildfires, Westworld stopped production earlier today [12.05] and will resume filming as soon as it’s safe to do so.” WESTWORLD is not the only affected party as thousands have been evacuated.
Surely there is not too much filming to be done as the series is expected to air its sophomore season in Spring 2018 and there is still post-production work to complete. Evidently, shots on the streets of Sweetwater are still needed meaning that the amusement park setting had not been burnt down during the Host revolt.
We hope the scorching fires are extinguished and life and work are resumed for all soon.
